How to Add NES ROMs to the iPhone: A Guide to Installing NES Games Using the Cydia and Installer Apps

How to Add NES ROMs to the iPhone: A Guide to Installing NES Games Using the Cydia and Installer Apps
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All Your Old Nintendo Favorites

Running NES games on the iPhone is as easy as jailbreaking the iPhone – which is extremely simple and has been detailed at length in several previous articles here on Bright Hub. That’s why to start this guide; I’ll be assuming that your iPhone is jailbroken and ready to go with both the Cydia and Installer applications. So, without further ado, here are the steps to running NES games on your iPhone.

Necessary Materials

Here’s what you’ll need before you run any classic NES games on the iPhone:

Jailbroken iPhone

ZdZiarski’s NES Application

Lots and Lots of ROM images

How to Add NES ROM’s

Here’s a step by step guide on how to add ROM’s to your iPhone:

  1. Starting with the jailbroken phone, you’ll need to go into the Cydia repository and install the NES Application (in the event that you can’t find it, you’ll need to go into the Installer App)

  2. The iPhone will reboot and the application will be installed, then you’ll need to actually take those ROM images and get ready to do something with them

  3. You’ll need to SSH into the iPhone (this can be a complex procedure, but use WinSCP and it should be no trouble) to create a new directory

  4. The directory you’ll need to create is “/var/root/Media/ROMs/NES/” – make sure to type exactly this directory or things will not work out correctly

  5. Once you have the directory created, you’ll want to transfer all those ROM files onto the iPhone for quick use on the go

  1. Repeat step 5 whenever you want more ROMs

That’s really all there is to this particular procedure – the NES emulator essentially runs itself. Once you boot it up, it’ll ask you for the ROMs folder in the earlier versions – once it has verified your ROMs, you’ll be up and running in less time than it took to read this tutorial.

Most importantly, finding NES ROMs on the internet is an easy task, so if you can manage to (legally) get your hands on a copy of the original Zelda, the original Metroid, or the original Mario, I would highly recommend those while you wait for a competent SNES emulator to play that entire amazing library of games. In our next article, we’ll be tackling using SNES4iPhone to do exactly that - play those old favorites, like Chono Trigger, Super Ghouls and Ghosts, or even Super Mario Bros 3.